Tuesday, May 21, 2013

Radio Free Sarawak Receives Top International Award In Amman Jordan



Radio Free Sarawak founder Clare Rewcastle Brown accepted the highly prestigious Pioneer of Free Media Award from the International Press Institute at its annual conference in Amman last night.

Accompanied by two London colleagues she received the honour on behalf of the whole team of Sarawak Malaysian producers and presenters.  The award was established in 1996 to honour media or organizations which have fought to ensure freer and more independent media in their countries. 

The other two honours presented by the IPI’s Executive Director Alison Bethel McKenzie were the World Press Freedom Hero Awards, bestowed on two highly distinguished journalists, Marie Colvin and Mika Yamamoto, who were both killed in Syria last year.



Alison Bethel McKenzie presents the Pioneer of Press Freedom Award to RFS

In her address to the 300 guests present at the gala dinner at the Hussein Club in Amman Alison Bethel McKenzie said:

“It is my pleasure and honour to hand the 2013 IPI Free Media Pioneer Award to Radio Free Sarawak.  Radio Free Sarawak was established by journalist Clare Rewcastle Brown and started broadcasting in November 2010 and bills itself as “the independent radio station that brings you the news you want to hear not what others want you to hear”.  In practice this bold mission has involved among other things on-going attempts to expose alleged government corruption in Malaysia”

Ms Bethel McKenzie outlined how, broadcasting via shortwave radio and podcast, Radio Free Sarawak’s contributors have been detained by police and accused of possible acts of sedition by ministers in Malaysia.  Along with facing accusations of spreading malicious lies and threatening unity and harmony among races. 

“During the bitterly contested 2011 Sarawak elections Radio Free Sarawak and its sister site Sarawak Report were subjected to what were believed to be deliberate, if ultimately unsuccessful efforts to silence them via cyber attacks. They have refused to be silenced. Instead they continue to broadcast loud and clear, critically and courageously”

In her acceptance speech Clare Rewcastle Brown expressed honour and thanks for this recognition and support from the world’s oldest and most prestigious institute for international press freedom on behalf of her Sarawak Malaysian team of journalists and presenters and also on behalf of the station’s longhouse listeners.

“Malaysia is not used to a free media and we have provoked very aggressive reactions. 

Prominent politicians have accused us of sedition, filed police reports, accused us of poisoning the minds of the Dayak people of spreading lies, of acting as a virus and this has manifested itself in extraordinary cyber-attacks during this recent election and indeed jamming attacks as well and we find it extraordinary that our little small voice has provoked such an enormous and angry reaction in Malaysia although it has also helped to enhance our status in many ways.  

It has shown that reform is needed in the media and we will carry on our work in bringing an opportunity, a platform to some of the world’s most isolated and intimidated communities, living in the jungle far away from anyone and having that jungle cut away from under them, their rivers polluted, food becoming hard to find and really not knowing what is going on around them.  They’ve been totally disempowered, isolated from information, no one has really known of their plight.  

When we started broadcasting in 2010 we had no idea where this project would lead us or whether any of our target listeners in the longhouses would actually want to listen to us, whether they would be interested or whether they would speak back to us.  

We opened a local phone line in 2011 then we found out.  That phone line just went wild, they are always ringing us telling us about their problems, delighted to find their voice and they’ve found their courage in the process.  So we will keep on broadcasting to them, explaining how they can improve their situation, how they can avoid exploitation, illegal logging, what measures they can take and encouraging them to know about their rights, encouraging them not to sell their votes for 5 dollars a time as they’ve always been told would be a good idea by the government in power at this time. We’ve told them they have to exercise their rights, exercise their voice and through their own efforts bring reform to their lives and to their country. Thank you for your support in our job”.

~ Radio Free Sarawak
 

Bigger say for Sabah, Sarawak

Posted on 20 May 2013 - 06:36pm
FIXED deposits in banks give good returns and for Sabah and Sarawak, their position as the fixed deposit states of the Barisan Nasional has paid off handsomely.
When Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak unveiled his new cabinet last Wednesday, Sarawak ended up with seven ministers, four more than what it had in the previous cabinet, while Sabah got two more with six ministers. In addition, each state was allocated four deputy ministers.
"I call it the East Malaysian assault, the balance of power is shifting," a retired army lieutenant-colonel who served three stints in Sarawak told me.
"Wow, Sarawakians rule," an Umno Supreme Council member texted.
To top it up, prominent academician Datuk Dr Ibrahim Ahmad Bajunid, who is deputy vice-chancellor of INTI Laureate International University, had this teaser in his newspaper column: "The day will come when someone from Sabah and Sarawak will become the Prime Minister."
The two states' harvest of cabinet posts is the largest ever and they make up more than one-third in the 32-member cabinet. It tallies with them winning 47 parliamentary seats in the general election, which is also more than one-third of the 133 seats that the Barisan won to comfortably return to power with a 44-seat cushion.
It must have been much tougher and a tight balancing act for Najib compared to his predecessors in the making of the cabinet this time.
This has to do with the demands from Barisan's component parties in the two states for increased representation in the cabinet in return for their success in warding off the determined onslaught from Pakatan Rakyat to gain a foothold in East Malaysia like it did on mainland Malaysia.
Following the 2008 general election, then prime minister Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi found how difficult it was to accommodate the rising expectations when two of his appointees for deputy minister's post from Sabah, Datuk Seri Anifah Aman and Datuk Ghapur Salleh, rejected the appointments.
It was the first time ever, at least publicly, that such a thing happened.
When Najib took over as prime minister in 2009 following Abdullah's resignation, he brought Anifah into the cabinet by making him foreign minister, a post he was reappointed to in the new cabinet.
This time around, the formation of the cabinet was not without its behind the scenes drama either. Najib was supposed to have announced his new team at a press conference at 4pm but this had to be postponed by an hour.
I was told that this followed a last-minute protest by Parti Rakyat Sarawak (PRS), the main Dayak-based Barisan party which won all the six seats it contested but did not see any of its MPs being made a full minister.
It got to know about this when two of its MPs, Datuk Joseph Entulu Belaun and Datuk Joseph Salang Gandum, were told to attend a rehearsal on Wednesday with other deputy ministers-designate for the swearing-in ceremony at Istana Negara the next day.
Both refused to attend the rehearsal. Meantime, PRS president Tan Sri Dr James Masing sent a text message to the prime minister expressing his disappointment at the party not being allocated a single minister's post.
A highly-placed party source said after the announcement was delayed for an hour, Najib called Dr Masing. When the final line-up was revealed, it had Joseph Entulu, the PRS deputy president, as minister in the prime minister's department.
That's not the end of the story as far as PRS was concerned. At around 5pm when Najib was meeting the press, Salang faxed a note to the PM's office to say that he had decided to turn down the deputy minister's appointment and he told some reporters in Sarawak about it later.
"Look, I've been a deputy minister for nine years and I'm pushing 63. At this age, I'm not going to be deputy minister for another five years. I'll make way for a younger person in the party to take up the slot," Salang told me after news about his rejecting the appointment had spread on the eve of the swearing-in ceremony.
Apparently, the PRS had expected to have two ministers but since only one was offered at the last minute after Dr Masing's protest, the younger Joseph Entulu was picked over Salang by virtue of his party position. Salang is PRS vice-president.
The party held a special meeting in Kuching on Friday and the atmosphere, according to Salang, was "fiery".
The remarks Dr Masing made to the media after the meeting were blunt. It was obvious that the party had reluctantly accepted the minister's post for Joseph Entulu because it did not come with a specific portfolio as he is one of eight ministers in the prime minister's department, a record number, too.
The PRS president said as a rural-based party, PRS should have been given posts relevant to the needs of its constituents. He argued that the largely rural areas of Sarawak, being the Barisan's "fixed deposit" should be taken care of properly, otherwise the voters would withdraw their support.
"This is what we are worried about," he said, apparently referring to the Sarawak state election less than three years down the road.
Salang's rejection of the post, he said, reflected the attitude and pride of the new generation of Dayaks, Sarawak's biggest community, who felt that if something was not done properly, they would stand their ground.
It also means that PRS is not interested in tokenism in government posts offered to it but portfolios that are relevant to the people it represents.
"Whatever the position given to PRS must be one which can be of help to the rural people. It's the portfolio that matters most," said Dr Masing, who wants a meeting with Najib to discuss the party's disappointment over the appointment of its MPs as federal ministers. For the record, the six seats PRS represents have a land size bigger than half of Peninsular Malaysia.
Salang was more candid over his snub of the deputy minister's post.
"The least I expect is for the PM not to make the Dayak look like the cosmetic flower. We have to see not just the current situation but also the future. What I see is disconnection in what we aspire to be. We have been misinterpreted or the federal government could have misinterpreted us as well."
We all know that Najib is surrounded by a bevy of political secretaries and special officers, including some dealing with Chinese affairs. Eight of them contested the general election on Umno tickets and six of them lost.
I would suggest that he appoints a political secretary from the Dayak community to better handle its affairs in Putrajaya.
The Salang snub did not, however, deny Sarawak its day of glory in the new cabinet. Both female ministers are from the state. And for the first time ever, Wanita Umno, an important wing of the country's largest and most dominant party, is not represented at the highest level of policymaking.
Nancy Shukri, one of the two ministers, is the most surprising appointment of them all. Outside of Sarawak, this two-term MP is hardly known while the other appointee, Datuk Rohani Abdul Karim was a deputy minister with three ministries before her appointment as women, family and community development minister.
I sent this text message to Wanita Umno leader Datuk Seri Shahrizat Abdul Jalil: "This is the first time since Independence that Wanita Umno is not in the cabinet. The movement is going backward."
Her terse response: "As long as we are strong grassroots, it's hard to topple us."
Datuk Seri Douglas Uggah Embas, one of the seven Sarawak ministers summed it up on the feelings among his state mates now in the cabinet: "The fruits have come forth. Now we have to deliver."
It's a huge challenge, now even bigger for ministers from Sabah and Sarawak, given the instruction from Najib in his cabinet meeting that all ministers have to be seen as ministers for all Malaysians and not moving in their compartments or respective silos.
He also wants them to "add value" to their services by engaging the public in forums, face-to-face sessions and social media.
They are now under greater scrutiny than ever before as shown by the outcome of the general election and with a rapid rise in the number of young voters.
Azman Ujang is a former editor-in-chief of Bernama. Comments: letters@thesundaily.com
~ The Sun Daily

'Now, brace yourselves for GST'

Harakahdaily,20 May 2013

May 20: Pakatan Rakyat's repeated warning prior to the general election that a Barisan Nasional victory would pave the way for the good and services tax is now set to be realised, said DAP's Kluang member of parliament Liew Chin Tong.

Liew referred to the statement by minister in Prime Minister's Department Idris Jala at a recent forum, where he said at a rate of 7%, the GST would enable the government to collect some RM27 billion from the public.

Liew further said that the appointment of Ahmad Mazlan as deputy Finance minister was meant to "coordinate propaganda for the implementation of GST."

"It seems that the implementation of GST is top on Najib's list after the elections," said Liew, who also heads DAP's Political Education unit.

Liew reminded that since 2005 during Abdullah Badawi's premiership, BN had been wanting to implement the GST.

"With Idris Jala's latest revelation, the Barisan Nasional Government is finally letting the goods and services tax (GST) cat out of the bag," he said, while adding that the Pakatan Rakyat's formula to improve the government's finances was through reduction of corruption, wastage and cronyism.

Liew also referred to what he called "coded signals" in Paragraphs 80 to 83 of the budget speech by Najib last year

In October 2012, Pakatan Rakyat leaders issued a joint statement opposing the implementation of GST, saying the government had no moral right to impose any new tax on Malaysia's consuming public while allowing "systemic corruption and cronyism"

~ Harakah Daily

‘Selective prosecution’ condemned

Posted on 20 May 2013 - 10:29pm




PETALING JAYA (May 20, 2013)
: Human Rights Group Suara Rakyat Malaysia (Suaram) has condemned what it claims to be "selective prosecution" against PKR communications director Nik Nazmi Nik Ahmad under the Peaceful Assembly Act 2012 (PAA).
Nik Nazmi, who is Seri Setia state assemblyman, was charged on Friday under the PAA for failing to provide police with 10 days' notice for the May 8 "Blackout 505" rally in Kelana Jaya Stadium.
Nik Nazmi was released without bail but faces a fine of up to RM10,000 upon conviction and disqualification as an elected representative if the fine exceeds RM2,000.
Suaram executive director Nalini Elumalai, in a statement said: "Suaram views this selective prosecution against Nik Nazmi as arbitrary and politically motivated and raises serious questions about the political neutrality of the police.
"The right to freedom of assembly is an intrinsic part of the right to freedom of expression which is guaranteed in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other international laws and standards," she said.
Meanwhile, Serdang MP Ong Kian Ming, also urged police to stop what he believed was selective persecution of youth leaders and student activists, including Adam Adli Abdul Halim.
"I strongly question the decision to selectively detain Adam Adli, as many prominent leaders have also expressed their unhappiness with the polls and their support for public rallies," said Ong.
Adam Adli was arrested on Saturday and remanded for five days under Section 4(1) of the Sedition Act 1948, for allegedly telling a forum on May 13 that Malaysians "cannot wait for five years to overthrow Umno and Barisan Nasional (BN)".
He is also being investigated under Section 124(B) of the Penal Code.
He was echoing similar calls made by Asalkan Bukan Umno founder Haris Ibrahim and political activist Hishammuddin Rais, who also spoke at the forum on democracy and electoral reforms.
"Perhaps the Barisan Nasional government is doing this in the hope of sending a message to young Malaysians to cease involvement in student activism and youth-led grassroots democracy activities," he said.
~ The Sun Daily